Pure practical reason is the opposite to impure (or sensibly-determined) practical reason and appears in Immanuel Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals.
It is the reason that drives actions without any sensible incentives. Human reasoning chooses such actions simply because those actions are good in themselves; this is the nature of good will, which Kant argues is the only concept that is good without any justification, it is good in itself and is a derivative of a transcendental law which affects the way humans practically reason (see practical philosophy).
Famous quotes containing the words pure, practical and/or reason:
“Nay but you, who do not love her,
Is she not pure gold, my mistress?”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)
“One of the great triumphs of the nineteenth century was to limit the connotation of the word “immoral” in such a way that, for practical purposes, only those were immoral who drank too much or made too copious love. Those who indulged in any or all of the other deadly sins could look down in righteous indignation on the lascivious and the gluttonous.... In the name of all lechers and boozers I most solemnly protest against the invidious distinction made to our prejudice.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“For books are more than books, they are the life
The very heart and core of ages past,
The reason why men lived and worked and died,
The essence and quintessence of their lives.”
—Amy Lowell (1874–1925)